1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning adapter unit for connecting an accessorial cleaning device to a medical endoscope having a fluid conduit and, more specifically, to an accessorial cleaning device cleaning adapter unit for detachably connecting an accessorial cleaning device for delivering a chemical into fluid conduits of a medical endoscope through fluid valves.
2. Description of Related Art
Endoscopes for, in particular, medical application have a plurality of conduits opening at a distal end of an insertion pait. Typical example of the conduits is an insertion channel for introducing medical instruments such as a forceps into a body cavity for picking of body tissues or a medical treatment of affected parts. Such a medical endoscope is provided with an observation window at a distal end of the insertion part. When the window is tainted with a body fluid, it is necessary to wash out the body fluid from the window with water and pressurized air that is supplied through an air/water tube and sprayed from a nozzle so as thereby to keep the window clean sufficiently enough to provide a clear vision. The medical endoscope is further provided with a suction tube through which filthy matters are sucked out of a body cavity. Generally, this suction tube is not always provided independently and partly combined with the instment insertion channel. The instrument insertion channel extends from an instrument inlet formed in a control section of the endoscope, and the suction tube out of the endoscope branches off from the instrument insertion channel and extends within a sheath tube of universal cords to a suction unit. Some kinds of endoscopes are further provided with one or more auxiliary injection passages.
Among these tubes and passages, the air/water tube is controlled by a fluid control valve assembly installed in the control section of the endoscope. The fluid control valve assembly comprises an air/water feed valve and a suction valve. These valves are an arranged adjacenty to each other as closely as possible for easy operation with fingers of an operator's hand gripping on the control section of the endoscope. Each of the valves has a valve body mounted in a valve casing of the endoscope to which the relevant tube or passage is connected and an operating button installed to the control section of the endoscope so as to extend out of the endoscope for easy operation of the surgical operator.
In the above circumstances, it has been proposed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent No. 6-6103 to use a cleaning adapter unit attachabe to the control section where the air/water feed valve, the suction valve and the operating buttons have been uninstalled in order to make it possible to wash an interior of the air/water tube and an interior of the suction passage. According to the cleaning adapter unit, when removing these valves and buttons, the valve casing appears out of the control section. The valve casing has a mounting flange to which the operating buttons and the cleaning adapter unit are interchangeably attached.
These air/water feed valve and a suction valve are structured so that valve bodies and their associated operating buttons are removed from valve casings. However, the valve casings are not always structurally identical, more specifically different in shape and dimensions according to types of endoscopes. Consequentially, when cleaning different types of endoscopes, it is essential to prepare various types of adapters different in shape and dimensions correspondingly to respective types of the valve casings of different endoscopes. This is undesirable from the viewpoint of a large storage space for various types of adapters and identification of the adapters according to types of the valve casings.